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Intersubjectivity evolved to fit the brain, but grammar co-evolved with the brain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Patricia M. Greenfield  and
Kristen Gillespie-Lynch
Patricia M. Greenfield
Affiliation:
FPR-UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development, and Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA [email protected]://www.psych.ucla.edu/Faculty/faculty.php?id=59&area=4
Kristen Gillespie-Lynch
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA [email protected]
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Abstract

We propose that some aspects of language – notably intersubjectivity – evolved to fit the brain, whereas other aspects – notably grammar – co-evolved with the brain. Cladistic analysis indicates that common basic structures of both action and grammar arose in phylogeny six million years ago and in ontogeny before age two, with a shared prefrontal neural substrate. In contrast, mirror neurons, found in both humans and monkeys, suggest that the neural basis for intersubjectivity evolved before language. Natural selection acts upon genes controlling the neural substrates of these phenotypic language functions.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 5 , October 2008 , pp. 523 - 524
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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